Giving an Effective Poster Presentation — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:04Hi, I'm George Hes. Now that you've
3. 0:06created your poster, let's talk about
4. 0:08what it's like to present one. In this
5. 0:10short video, we'll show you some uh
6. 0:13basic tips for how to present your
7. 0:14poster and some common situations that
8. 0:16you're likely to encounter and how to
9. 0:18handle them. But before we do that, let
10. 0:20me say a few words about what poster
11. 0:22sessions are like. Poster sessions occur
12. 0:25in very social and interactive settings.
13. 0:28There are often dozens or hundreds of
14. 0:29posters in very large rooms that have
15. 0:32very little soundabsorbing material.
16. 0:34Plus, there's lots of people walking
17. 0:36around, often with food and drink, and
18. 0:39they're all talking to one another. So,
19. 0:41poster sessions can get really loud and
20. 0:43really chaotic, and they're absolutely
21. 0:45going to be exciting for you, especially
22. 0:47the first time. So, you should be
23. 0:49prepared for that kind of an
24. 0:50environment. So, let's take a look at
25. 0:53some situations and how to handle them.
26. 0:55Can you tell me about your poster? Well,
27. 0:57the title of my poster is poison
28. 1:00regression analysis of high school
29. 1:01football prospects. I'm the author,
30. 1:03Anthony Franklin, and I worked with Dr.
31. 1:06Thomas Ryland. Introduction is
32. 1:08successful teams have elite players. In
33. 1:11the expanding business of collegiate
34. 1:12sports, losing football programs result
35. 1:15in more than low school spirit. For
36. 1:17major Hold on, hold on. Wait a minute.
37. 1:18Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Rule
38. 1:21number one, don't read your poster. A
39. 1:24poster is a visual tool and you should
40. 1:26use it that way. Instead of reading word
41. 1:29for word, what you should be doing is
42. 1:31speaking in a less formal manner using
43. 1:35the tables and the maps and the other
44. 1:37graphics on your poster to hold the
45. 1:39conversation with your viewer. Did you
46. 1:41notice what happened there? The
47. 1:42presenter was staring at his words
48. 1:45rather than engaging with the viewer.
49. 1:47That's not the right way to do it. If
50. 1:49you avoid reading your poster, that's
51. 1:51not likely to happen. So again, don't
52. 1:54read your poster. Tell me what you did.
53. 1:56Well, I uh I I worked with from
54. 2:00California all the way to Florida,
55. 2:02including Texas. And I looked at all the
56. 2:04major conferences throughout the
57. 2:06country. Oh, and I used the poison
58. 2:08distribution as the distribution for my
59. 2:10poison regression model. And my model, I
60. 2:13used a natural log link function. And I
61. 2:15noticed that temperature in spring
62. 2:17football. Hold on. Wait a minute. Wait a
63. 2:18minute. Wait a minute.
64. 2:20Okay, things are getting better there,
65. 2:22but they're not quite there yet. Rule
66. 2:25number two is be prepared.
67. 2:28Did you notice that the presenter this
68. 2:30time was animated? He was using his
69. 2:32poster as a tool. He was pointing to the
70. 2:34maps and the graphics. He was engaging
71. 2:36with his viewer. But didn't you get the
72. 2:39impression that maybe he'd never even
73. 2:41seen this poster before? Or at the least
74. 2:43that he'd never thought about anybody
75. 2:45coming up and saying, "What did you do?"
76. 2:48Be prepared. Particularly if you're
77. 2:50someone who's entering your poster into
78. 2:52a contest, you should expect someone
79. 2:55like a judge to come up and ask you,
80. 2:57"Tell me what you did." Have a twominut
81. 2:59presentation ready in your head and be
82. 3:02ready to walk through it when someone
83. 3:03asks that question. Remember, be
84. 3:06prepared. So, tell me what you found.
85. 3:09When one is looking to predict the rate
86. 3:11at which states produce elite football
87. 3:12recruits, there are two important
88. 3:14factors to consider. One is the
89. 3:16temperature of the state and two is
90. 3:19whether the state offers high school
91. 3:20football in the spring semester. Not all
92. 3:22states offer spring football. In fact,
93. 3:25not many do. But for the ones that do,
94. 3:27they often have a higher rate of
95. 3:29recruits that get produced from the
96. 3:31state. And for instance, the top six are
97. 3:33Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas,
98. 3:36Louisiana, and California. Nearly 68% of
99. 3:40the states produce less than two
100. 3:41prospects per 1,000 football players on
101. 3:44their roster. In fact, Vermont in the
102. 3:47six-year span that the study was done
103. 3:49didn't produce any at all. Awesome. Wow,
104. 3:52that was so much better. Let's look at
105. 3:55what happened right there. So, first of
106. 3:57all, I want to point out that that
107. 3:58question, tell me what you found, is
108. 4:00another question that's pretty typical
109. 4:01and you should expect. Then, what
110. 4:04happened after the question was asked
111. 4:06was that the presenter used his poster
112. 4:09as a visual tool. Notice how he pointed
113. 4:12to the graphs as he was talking to the
114. 4:14viewer. noticed that they were very very
115. 4:16engaged. Lots of eye contact, lots of
116. 4:20interaction between the two of them. He
117. 4:22also spoke in a fairly informal manner
118. 4:24and worked through his poster in a very
119. 4:27logical way. Very, very nicely done.
120. 4:31Now, let's look at what happens when
121. 4:33people start asking you questions. What
122. 4:35do you mean by quantitative variable?
123. 4:38Well, there are two types of variables.
124. 4:40There's quantitative and qualitative. A
125. 4:42qualitative variable deals with
126. 4:44categories or levels of a factor like
127. 4:47gender, male or female. A quantitative
128. 4:50variable deals with something you can
129. 4:51count a numeric value like your height
130. 4:54or your weight.
131. 4:56I was also looking at your poster and I
132. 4:58noticed this. What is it? That is
133. 5:01posson. In fact, I use the posson
134. 5:03distribution in my regression analysis.
135. 5:06You use the poison distribution to count
136. 5:08the data. In fact, I have some extra
137. 5:11information here on this sheet. The
138. 5:13poison distribution looks similar to
139. 5:15this, just depending on what mean value
140. 5:18you give it. Let's examine what we just
141. 5:21saw. There were two questions. The first
142. 5:23question was one that the presenter was
143. 5:25able to answer right on the spot using
144. 5:27his poster as a tool to support his
145. 5:30answer. The second question was a little
146. 5:32more complicated because the answer
147. 5:34wasn't right on his poster. But notice
148. 5:37what happened. he was able to pull out
149. 5:39another piece of paper that had a graph
150. 5:42on it that he could use to support his
151. 5:44answer to the question. Think about that
152. 5:46for a minute. You don't have to put
153. 5:49everything on your poster. It's okay to
154. 5:52bring supplemental material. That's a
155. 5:54really important point because what it
156. 5:56means in terms of design is again you
157. 5:59don't have to put everything on your
158. 6:00poster. So you're when you're in that
159. 6:02mode where you're struggling to think
160. 6:04about what should I put on, what should
161. 6:06I leave off, go back to the basics and
162. 6:08think what is my main point? What's the
163. 6:11main thing I'm trying to get across to
164. 6:13my audience? That's what belongs on your
165. 6:15poster. Everything else you can have on
166. 6:18extra sheets of paper that you can carry
167. 6:20with you and use to support your answers
168. 6:22to questions with graphics and visuals
169. 6:25that are not on the poster itself. So
170. 6:27how did the model perform under a
171. 6:28different link function? Oh, it's a very
172. 6:30good question and I do not know the
173. 6:32answer to that question off the top of
174. 6:34my head, though I've seen the answer
175. 6:35before. So, how about
176. 6:38you contact me? Here's my card. And if
177. 6:40you would like, you can email me the
178. 6:42question. I'll get back to you as soon
179. 6:43as I can. Okay. And um how did this
180. 6:47impact specific football teams? That's
181. 6:50another very good question.
182. 6:51Unfortunately, that question goes beyond
183. 6:53the scope of what I did for this
184. 6:54research, but it's definitely something
185. 6:56I'll look forward to in the future. So
186. 6:58in these two cases, the presenter was
187. 7:00asked questions that he was unable to
188. 7:02answer on the spot. In the first case,
189. 7:04it was actually work that he had done,
190. 7:06but he just didn't have the material
191. 7:08with him, and he couldn't recall what
192. 7:09the answer was. Notice what he did. He
193. 7:12gave the viewer a card and asked the
194. 7:14viewer to get in touch with him after
195. 7:16the conference so that he could supply
196. 7:18the answer. That's a perfectly
197. 7:20reasonable thing to do and far simpler
198. 7:22as a presenter than standing there with
199. 7:24a pad and a pen and a paper and trying
200. 7:26to write down all sorts of contact
201. 7:28information or collecting a hundred
202. 7:30business cards. How did this impact
203. 7:32specific football teams? That's another
204. 7:35very good question. In the second
205. 7:37instance, the question was one that was
206. 7:39beyond the scope of the presenter's
207. 7:40research and he just admitted it. Also a
208. 7:44completely reasonable thing to do. You
209. 7:46can't answer every question. It's great
210. 7:49then to talk about how you might address
211. 7:51the question, what kind of research it
212. 7:52would take, why it's a difficult
213. 7:54question to answer, and what you might
214. 7:56do in the future. You might even scope
215. 7:58out some collaboration with the viewer.
216. 8:01One thing you don't want to do, though,
217. 8:02when you're asked questions you don't
218. 8:04have an answer to, is make things up.
219. 8:07Just say, "I don't know." And leave it
220. 8:09at that. So, you guys hear about that
221. 8:11dinner reception thing tonight? I hear
222. 8:12the food's supposed to be primo. I'm
223. 8:14thinking about going. Are you going?
224. 8:16Yeah, I think so. I heard you're
225. 8:18supposed to be a band. Sounds like a
226. 8:19plan to me. Whoa. Whoa. This is not
227. 8:22good. Remember what you're here for.
228. 8:25This is a poster presentation. Viewers
229. 8:27first. Yes, poster sessions are social.
230. 8:31Yes, it's okay to chat with people about
231. 8:33things other than your poster. But when
232. 8:35someone comes up and wants to talk to
233. 8:37you about your poster, you need to tend
234. 8:38to them. Not only could it be someone
235. 8:41who you might want to collaborate with
236. 8:43in the future. It could be the judge or
237. 8:45it could be someone who actually
238. 8:46disperses grants that could take your
239. 8:48research further. Remember, viewers
240. 8:51first. I thought he was a really good
241. 8:53speaker. I heard the one of the dinners.
242. 8:55Excuse me. Hi, my name is Anthony
243. 8:57Franklin. Let me know if you have any
244. 8:59questions about the poster. That was
245. 9:01nice. That time the presenter was having
246. 9:03a side conversation and noticed the
247. 9:05viewer come up to look at his poster. He
248. 9:07immediately stopped that side
249. 9:09conversation, introduced himself, made
250. 9:11himself available for questions, and
251. 9:13then allowed the viewer to go back to
252. 9:15reading the poster. Nicely done. Okay,
253. 9:18so let's review the main points. Rule
254. 9:20number one, don't read your poster. Use
255. 9:23your poster as a visual tool. Point to
256. 9:26the graphs, point to the maps, point to
257. 9:28the charts, and talk about what you did.
258. 9:31Don't read your poster. Rule number two,
259. 9:34be prepared. Have a two to three minute
260. 9:37talk prepared prior to the session. In
261. 9:40fact, expect certain questions like what
262. 9:43was your poster about? What were the
263. 9:45results? And what are the expectations
264. 9:48coming from the poster? Rule number
265. 9:50three, handouts are good. You don't have
266. 9:52to squeeze every bit of information onto
267. 9:54your poster. The things on your poster
268. 9:57should be restricted to those needed to
269. 10:00make your main point. That's all you
270. 10:02need to do there. If there are other
271. 10:04things you expect viewers might want to
272. 10:06know about, bring them on additional
273. 10:08pieces of paper, a manuscript, a
274. 10:11computer simulation, whatever, but just
275. 10:13keep them off your poster. Have them
276. 10:15available so if someone asks you, you
277. 10:17can refer to it with them. Another neat
278. 10:19thing to do is to create a small handout
279. 10:22of your poster that also has additional
280. 10:24information on the back side. So again,
281. 10:28handouts are your friend. Rule number
282. 10:30four, if you don't know the answer to
283. 10:32the question off hand and the question
284. 10:34is within the scope of your research,
285. 10:36it's okay to get back to the viewer
286. 10:38after the poster session. In fact, ask
287. 10:41the viewer if they wouldn't mind
288. 10:43emailing you the question and you can
289. 10:44get to them as soon as possible after
290. 10:46the session. Rule number five, if you're
291. 10:49asked a question that's beyond the scope
292. 10:50of your work or you don't know the
293. 10:52answer to, just admit it. If it's beyond
294. 10:55the scope of your work, you might open a
295. 10:57conversation about what research could
296. 10:59be done to answer the question. You
297. 11:01might even start talking to your viewer
298. 11:03about collaborative efforts to address
299. 11:05the question, but just say it's beyond
300. 11:07the scope of my work. If you don't know
301. 11:09the answer, the thing you don't want to
302. 11:11do is make things up. Instead, just say
303. 11:15I don't know and leave it at that. And
304. 11:17rule number six, put your viewer first.
305. 11:20The viewer is the number one priority of
306. 11:22your poster session. So before you
307. 11:25decide to go into any socializing or
308. 11:27texting or any other side activities,
309. 11:29remember your viewer is the most
310. 11:31important part of your poster session.
311. 11:32So always be ready to pay attention to
312. 11:35them. That's the end of this video. We
313. 11:37hope you find it helpful and it will
314. 11:39make you feel more comfortable giving
315. 11:40your poster presentation. Thanks so much
316. 11:43for your time and have a great day.